Hero? Doubt it
by labelbasher
Summary: Set a few years after gohan's battle with cell. gohan never really got over his father's death and he's really cut up about it. chichi decides that the best thing to do would be to send him to school to get his mind off training and things go from there.
1. Prologue

G'day peoples!!! This story is about Gohan's life after Goku dies, he takes his death worse than what he did on the series. It's kinda angsty, but it gets better later on…

Okies, I was gonna wait until I've finished writing this story b4 I posted it, but my curiosity got the better of me and I really wanna see what you guys think of it, the 1st chapter is about when Gohan kills Cell, but from the next chapter, it goes quite off the rails and different from the actual series…well I won't spoil it for you now, you'll hafta see…

Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ…but like always, I wish I did…along with the other millions out there who could do with extra pocket money…

I stared at him. He stared at me.

I couldn't believe that he was back, the evil monster that killed my dad, because of my stupidity, and now had killed Trunks, was back, staring me in the face.

I felt uncontrollable anger, yet I felt so weak with fatigue. I had thought this nightmare was over, but instead it was back, with a vengeance.

What could I do? I was on the verge of giving up, that's when I heard it.

"Not giving up yet are you, Gohan?"

That sounded like Dad. I looked around for the source of the voice, but couldn't find it.

"Dad? Is that you? Where are you?" I asked

"I'm talking to you via King Kai" he said simply "You can't be giving up yet can you?"

"I can't do it," I said, hating admitting my weakness, but it was the truth, I didn't think that I could do it.

"That doesn't sound like the Gohan I know" Goku said, with a smile evident in his voice "The Gohan I know wouldn't give up"

"But I don't know what to do" I said, almost collapsing from fatigue and despair of losing my father again.

I could hear Cell in the background taunting me and teasing me about talking to myself.

"You have to trust yourself. Charge up the biggest Kamehameha that you can, and trust yourself, you have to get rid of Cell, no one else can do it, only you can"

"I'll try," I said, gritting my teeth and I started to concentrate all my energy, every single bit of energy that was left in my worn out body.

I could see the others on the sidelines staring at me in disbelief, wondering what I was doing, but they knew that I was their only hope, I had to live up to their expectations.

I could see Cell looking at me in amazement as well, he thought I had nothing left in me. I almost didn't, but he had to pay for what he did to my friends and family.

KAAAAA……

Cell's expression changed to a smirk as he realised what I was about to do, he was too cocky. He would pay.

MEEEEE……

Cell started gathering his energy for his own attack, probably a Kamehameha as well. I blocked out all other distractions and concentrated on getting every single last bit of energy I possessed.

HAAAAA……

I brought my right hand back, my left one was hanging uselessly by my side, and I formed a ki ball in it, pushing all my energy out into my hand.

MEEEEE……

Cell copied my stance, and attack, like a mirror image of me except he had a cocky smirk playing on his face. I ignored him and cleared my mind, preparing to throw my attack.

HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I threw the attack with all the power I possessed, and Cell released his at the same time. They met in the middle and there was a tremendous clash of power in-between us.

Seconds were passing like hours and I was getting so tired. Cell was pouring heaps of energy into his attack. The others decided to help me out and they were doing their own attacks on Cell, but their attempts were futile, he was just using his energy to push them away.

Anger surged through me, he was hurting my friends again!

I pushed more energy into the attack, and for a few seconds, I was winning again, but it didn't last for long.

"Come on Gohan, use every bit of energy you have! Don't hold back because you're scared that you'll blow up the earth! Remember what Cell has done to everyone" Goku coached me from above.

I gritted my teeth. 

"I'm trying!!!" I yelled

Suddenly, I felt his presence all around me and it fueled me on, making my attack more powerful.

Vegeta saw this opportunity and he attacked Cell with his strongest attack, which distracted him enough for me to make mine larger.

"NOW GOHAN!!!" Dad yelled

I pushed all my anger and energy out into the Kamehameha. All my anger at innocent people, including my dad and Trunks, being killed, all my despair, at losing my dad again, all my extra energy which I was holding back to try and save the earth from being blown up, I gave it everything I had.

My Kamehameha grew huge, bigger than I'd ever seen any ki attack before.

It rushed towards Cell, who wasn't ready for it and it swallowed him up, and disintegrated him. Every single little cell in his being. This time for sure.

When I saw that he was finally gone, fatigue overtook me and I dropped out of Super Saiyan and collapsed to the ground, panting hard. Finally, the nightmare was over, and it wouldn't come back.

But Dad was dead. And he couldn't come back. He'd already been wished back once.

Sadness tore at my heart. I even contemplated killed myself too, so I could be with him, but in a moment of rational thinking, I remembered my mom. She'd be devastated.

So as I lay there, on the cold, hard ground, I silently promised my mom that I'd always be there for her, and I'd train harder than ever before, because the enemies could only get stronger, and if they were anything like Cell, I'd have a huge job on my hands. And I promised my dad that I'd find a way to get him back, even if it meant travelling to New Namek myself, I was going to bring him back.

And no matter what happened, I was going to keep these promises.

~~~

**Author's Notes: **Well, this is the end of the first chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. This is the only chapter that's written in 1st person, all the others are in 3rd, but I thought that it was better starting it this way.

**Advertising: **Hehe, I've never advertised b4, but this story really deserves it…it's Touch Tones by Pirate Kit, Story ID: 735721, it's about Piccolo and he discovers a girl, called Meece and takes her in, but she's deaf, it's a really cute story about Meece growing up and all, a must read.


	2. A day in the life of Son Gohan

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Hero? Doubt it

Chapter 1 – A day in the life of Son Gohan

Written By RJ

~~~

Disclaimer: Nup, don't own it…

Okie peoples, here's the next chapter, please review this one…I'm thinking that u didn't review the last chapter because it was only taken from the episode, so I'll give u an actual bit of the story…or maybe it's cause I suck at summaries…anyway, whatever it is…please review…

~~~

It had been 4 years since the big fight with Cell (making Gohan 15), and that stupid moron, Hercule claiming victory, you would have thought that everyone wouldn't have believed that the stupid idiot would have beaten Cell, but apparently they all lapped it up, I guess that stupid humans believe anything you tell them. And everyone had moved on, except Gohan.

He still blamed himself for what happened, and no matter how much they said he shouldn't, and he felt that the other Z-fighters blamed him too, including his mom and Bulma.

Chichi had had Goten and he was 4 years old now, and really strong, and he was like a miniature clone of Goku, which sometimes served as a reminder for Gohan of how he failed his friends and family but usually provided him with good reminders, so they had a strong bond. 

Gohan sat outside under a tree, in a ripped and ravaged gi, which was evidence of his harsh training, deep in thought. His long spiky hair was half falling out of the material that he'd ripped off one of his old shirts, that he'd roughly used to tie his hair back (Like what he had when he was younger, and in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber). Under the tree was his favourite place to sit, as it was the tree where he'd crashed through as a baby and it had lots of memories. He remembered when his father had told him about that day. It was so funny. He had lots of memories, not all of them good, but he held on to them tightly, so no one could take them away.

Gohan sighed, gone were those happy, carefree days that he used to have as a kid. Even though evil forces insisted on making their lives hell, he still had fun cause his dad was there. Now it was his fault that he was gone. It was his fault that everyone was so unhappy. And when Goku had said that he didn't want to come back, well it made it worse, for him and everyone else, which made him feel even guiltier.

With a sigh, the teenager made his way back to the house, he could hear his mother calling him to come in for lunch.

When he entered the house, the delicious smells of lunch wafted towards him. Gohan silently moved forward and took his seat at the round table.

Sitting across from him, was 4-year-old Goten, his little brother, in-between them on his right was his mother and on his left was an empty seat. He gazed at it sadly, that was his father's seat. It still seemed strange that he wasn't there, even after all these years.

Chichi studied her son sadly, gone was the happy boy they all knew and loved, and now there was a sad, lonely boy, who obviously blamed himself for his father's death. No matter how much they assured him that they didn't blame him, or that it wasn't his fault, he wouldn't believe them. He was always out training now, his studies were slipping, but that wasn't her biggest concern, he needed comforting, he needed something to get his mind off training and his father. 

A small smile played on Chichi's face as an idea came to her.

'That's it!' she thought happily 'It's just what he needs!'

Goten's happy giggling broke into her thoughts and she quickly looked at him to see what he was giggling about.

Goten was holding a handful of spaghetti in one hand and the other was covered in tomato sauce.

Chichi looked over to Gohan, who was now covered with the spaghetti, with a very forlorn look on his face.

Stifling a laugh, Chichi handed Gohan a towel and helped him clean the spaghetti off his shirt.

Goten was giggling away from his seat across the table and it made Gohan smile. It seemed like the only thing that made Gohan happy these days was playing with Goten. Maybe because he was so much like Goku, but whatever it was, she was happy, because it meant that Gohan wasn't sad all the time, so she made sure that they spent a lot of time together.

Remembering her previous brainwave, Chichi turned to Gohan and said

"Hey Gohan,"

"Mm-hm?" Gohan replied

"I have an idea, would you like to start school? I think you should interact with some kids your own age and get your mind on other things other than training" Chichi said

"Whatever" Gohan said as if he couldn't care less about the whole idea, it was just another way to pass the time.

Chichi's brain was working overtime "I could enroll you at Orange Star High School and you'd be around kids your own age, and you could make some friends…"

Gohan tuned out after a while and excused himself from the table.

He was walking towards the door when he heard "Brrroooottthhheeerrrr!!!!!"

Gohan turned around to see little Goten following him towards the door.

"Hiya squirt, you wanna come with me?" Gohan said

Goten nodded eagerly. Gohan picked him up and walked outside.

"Can we fly?" Goten asked eagerly staring Gohan straight in the face.

"Why not?" Gohan said then took to the skies, flying towards his favourite place to train.

Gohan landed in the desert surrounded by rocks with a clear space in the middle.

The rocks had deep scars in them from Gohan's previous vigorous training exercises.

Gohan walked over to the side of the clearing and placed Goten on a flat rock.

"You stay there, okay?" he warned, he didn't want Goten to interfere in his training or get hurt either, for that matter.

"Okie Gohan, whatever you say" Goten said cheerfully and immediately searched his surroundings, finding a large beetle, which he picked up and proudly showed Gohan.

"Yeah, that's nice, you play with your beetle and stay here, I don't want to hurt you" Gohan warned Goten again and made his way into the middle of the clearing again and started his training.

Gohan started with his normal warm-up routine of punches and kicks before turning Super Saiyan and using an adapted form on Piccolo's split form technique to spar with himself.

The harsh training went on for hours, and when Gohan finally finished his training, tired and bruised, he went over to Goten's rock to find the boy fast asleep.

Gohan half smiled at Goten's sleeping form and yelled out "Nimbus!!!"

The soft fluffy cloud that we all know and love swooped out of the sky and appeared right in front of Gohan.

Gohan picked up the small sleeping form of Goten and placed him gently on Nimbus and instructed the cloud to take him back home.

Nimbus took off towards the Son house and instead of following them, Gohan decided to stay and do some extra training.

Gohan took to the air and flew off in search of his green friend, namely Piccolo.

He flew towards Piccolo's usual hangout and found him, he was floating above a flat rock, meditating.

Gohan landed in front of him and waited.

"Hello Gohan" Piccolo said, without even opening his eyes.

"Hi Piccolo, I was wondering if you wanted to spar with me," Gohan said, then quickly added "But if you're too busy, I understand, I'll go" 

Piccolo opened one eye and looked at Gohan, amused. 

Gohan smiled and took to the air, with Piccolo following close behind and they both assumed a fighting stance, each waiting for the other to make the first move.

Gohan rushed forward towards Piccolo and aimed a punch at him, which he dodged, as he was expecting, and he countered with a kick. Piccolo phased out, dodging the kick and he reappeared behind Gohan and was about to land a punch on his head when Gohan phased out and reappeared in front of Piccolo about 5 feet away, facing him. They started usual routine of punches and dodges, then stopped and flew back to starting positions a few metres away from each other.

Piccolo gave a small smirk and him and Gohan charged towards each other. Gohan faked a left and hit Piccolo with a right.

Piccolo made a comeback and sent a punch Gohan's way, but Gohan caught his fist. Piccolo aimed a high kick towards Gohan's head, which meant that Gohan had to let go of his fist if he wanted to block the kick.

Gohan did as Piccolo had hoped and released his grip on his hand and blocked the kick. Gohan saw the satisfied smile on Piccolo's face and knew that he'd played straight into his hands.

The fight was taken down to the ground where they were exchanging punches and kicks, Piccolo aimed a punch at Gohan, who dodged it by bending over and doing a back flip.  He pushed himself away from the ground with his hands and rose into the air.  He arced in the air and came down behind Piccolo, where he hit him from behind.

Piccolo turned around quickly and went on attack again, and the spar carried on for about half an hour more, then they both agreed to stop.

"You've improved, kid" Piccolo said, pride evident in his voice.

"Well, I would hope so, I've been training hard" Gohan said "And I really must go now, mom will be serving dinner soon"

Gohan turned around and took off into the distance towards his house, leaving his first teacher, standing there, worrying about him, just like the rest of the Z-fighters.

Gohan took his time going back home, dinner wouldn't be ready for a while yet, but he wanted to avoid awkward conversation at all costs.

He stopped and hovered over the stream where he and his father used to go fishing.

Seeing a fishtail flick above the water with his sharp Saiyan eyesight, he spontaneously decided to go fishing.

Gohan dived straight towards the water, where he'd last seen the fishtail. 

He hardly made a splash as he entered the water and he used his ki to push him along underwater so he wouldn't frighten the fish.

Spying a large fish downstream a bit, Gohan 'swam' towards the fish, reaching for the tail as he got closer.

As his hand closed around the tail, the surprised fish started thrashing around, but Gohan flew out of the water, high into the air, bringing the fish with him.

The fish soon stopped thrashing and Gohan flew back home, drying himself with his ki on the way.

Chichi was in the kitchen, staring out the window, deep in thought, about Gohan, as usual. She really wanted to help him, and let him know that no one blamed him, but he wouldn't take it from her, or any of the other Z-fighters. She and Bulma had been trying for ages to convince him, but he wouldn't see it their way.

She broke out of her thoughts when she saw her son land outside, a huge fish in his hand.

'Well, that's one problem solved, we'll have fish for dinner' she thought as she went outside to greet her son.

"Hey Gohan" she said

"Hi Mom, I got you a fish," Gohan said, holding out the fish for her

"Thanks son" she said, taking the fish and walked inside, Gohan following behind her.

Chichi went to the kitchen and Gohan went to his bedroom.

"Brother!" Goten exclaimed as Gohan walked into the room

"Hiya squirt" Gohan said

Goten put his hands on his hips and pouted "I'm not a squirt!" (Can u imagine that, it'd be so cute!)

Gohan smiled and held his hands up in mock surrender "Okay, okay, you're not a squirt, Goten"

Goten smiled the ever famous Son Grin "That's better!" he said cheerfully and returned his attention to the toys scattered all over the floor of their bedroom.

Gohan sat down on the bed and watched his little brother play. It was so peaceful, he was so innocent. If only he'd known Goku, they would have got on really well. Goku was really just a kid at heart.

"Boys!!! Dinner!!!" Chichi's voice rang through the Son house.

Goten dropped his toy, and with an eager look on his face, ran out to the table. Gohan followed behind.

At the table the two demi-Saiyans proceeded to satisfy their huge Saiyan appetite, by eating everything edible in sight.

Dinner was soon finished and Gohan and Goten washed the dishes while Chichi went to relax.

Goten was standing on a low stool so he could reach the sink, and he was washing the dishes and handing them to Gohan who dried them using his ki.

After their chores were done, the two boys went into the lounge and joined Chichi, who was watching TV.

They watched TV for about half an hour, then Gohan stood up and was about to leave the room.

"Hey Gohan" Chichi said, Gohan turned around and stood in the doorway.

"I enrolled you at Orange Star High School, you start tomorrow, so you'll need to get up early"

Gohan nodded and made his way to his bedroom and retrieved his photo album.

He sat down on his bed and looked at the cover of the album. He carefully and very solemnly opened the cover and looked at the first page.

A single photo covered the whole page. It was of him when he was a baby. Chichi was sitting on a chair, holding him and Goku was standing behind her and he had one hand protectively on Chichi's shoulder and the other tickling baby Gohan.

Gohan smiled and carefully turned the page.

There were two pictures on this page. One of Goku and Gohan at the first Z-fighter reunion, before Gohan had been kidnapped and Goku had been killed for the first time.

The other was another family photo.

As he went on in the album, looking at each of the familiar photos, Goku as a child, Chichi as a child, family pictures, pictures of Goten, and countless others of the Z-fighters at their reunions and other things like that.

Gohan closed the book and placed his hand on the back cover sadly. These were such joyful memories, when he looked at each of the photos, he felt closer to his dad.

He lay down on his bed and closed his eyes. He eventually fell into a peaceful sleep.

Goku was training hard in the Otherworld, for King Kai, so he could compete in the upcoming Otherworld tournament. King Kai had told him that he had excellent chances of winning, but still, he made him train.

He trained hard every day for the tournament and so he could get stronger. After all, it's a natural Saiyan tendency to want to become stronger.

Goku's thoughts drifted to his family, to Gohan in particular. He'd heard that Gohan'd been very depressed lately and he didn't take Goku's death too well.

'Maybe it's time to talk to him' Goku thought 'I'll ask King Kai to open a link later on'

Later that night, Gohan woke up suddenly. He'd been having another nightmare about the Cell Games. He used to get them heaps, but not so much anymore, which surprised him.

Sighing quietly, he silently pushed back his blankets, momentarily looking at the sleeping form of Goten in the bed next to him, before exiting the house.

Gohan went down to his favourite spot, the tree, and just sat there, deep in thought.

He knew that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep again, or for a while at least, so he might as well sit down and think.

About five minutes later, Gohan rose from his seat under the tree and was about to walk back towards the house when he heard it. A voice that he knew and loved. A voice that he had not heard for so long that he was almost beginning to forget how it sounded.

"Hey son, how's it going?" the ever cheerful voice of Goku filled the night sky around Gohan.

"Dad?"

"Who else?" Goku said, and laughed "How's life on earth"

"Well, it's pretty boring, I still wish you had come back" Gohan said, with sadness evident in his voice.

"Well, you know why I didn't" Goku said, his voice turning serious "Besides, it's great up here, King Kai is training me real well and I've improved heaps" he added in his cheerful voice again

"Yeah, whatever" Gohan mumbled "I'm starting school tomorrow"

"Really? Cool, that should be fun, you'll be able to be friends with people your own age"

"Yeah, that's what mom said, but I just wanna train"

"Yeah, but training isn't everything, your studies are important too" Goku said

"Wow! Now you really sound like her! All this time in the Otherworld must be messing with your brain" Gohan said

Goku laughed "Not really, I've just been around Chichi for too long"

Gohan laughed, his father's laugh was contagious, he could make anyone laugh.

"Well, I better go now, King Kai's complaining that I'm holding up the line" he heard King Kai snigger over the connection at his little joke.

"I'll be in touch soon, son" Goku said, a little more seriously

"Thanks Dad, goodnight"

"G'night Gohan" Goku said, and suddenly, he was gone.

The vibrant night air was now dark and still once again.

Gohan walked slowly back to the house, a mixture of feelings tugging at his heart.

"I love you, Dad," he said softly, looking back at the spot where they'd talked.

~~~

**Author's Notes: Okie, how was that??? Please review, comments, one worders, constructive criticism, advice, I accept them all…and I did put a lot of time and effort into this story…look, it's not even that hard to press the button in the corner…go on…I DARE YOU!!!!! And I promise the next chapters will get better…**


	3. School Sure Ain't All It's Cracked Up To...

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Hero? Doubt it

Chapter 2 – School Sure Ain't All It's Cracked Up To Be!

Written By RJ J

~~~

Hiya guys, and here's another chapter of Hero? Doubt it. Thanx for all of the cool reviews…well, enjoy the story!

~~~

The next morning, Gohan woke up and lay in bed for a while, thinking about the conversation he had with his dad last night.

He sounded happy enough up there, it made him sadder to think that he wouldn't be back for ages.

Gohan turned over and looked at the clock on his bedside table. It read 5:28.

He closed his eyes again, he didn't need to get up yet.

Gohan awoke again to the sound of his alarm clock ringing at 6:30, he must have fallen asleep again.

'Oh well, that comes with not getting up when you wake up' he thought as he slammed his hand down on the alarm clock, almost breaking it 'I can't go train now, I'll have to go in the afternoon'

He pushed the blankets off and sat up, yawning and stretching.

Still feeling half-asleep, Gohan grabbed some clothes off the end of his bed and staggered off towards the bathroom to have a shower and get changed.

About 10 minutes later, Gohan emerged from the bathroom, wearing baggy jeans and a black turtleneck sweater, looking much more awake than what he did when he went in.

He made his way towards the kitchen to eat his breakfast.

"Morning son" Chichi greeted cheerfully as Gohan entered the room.

"Morning mom" Gohan greeted, taking his seat across from Goten who was already sitting at the table, knife and fork poised in the air, ready to eat.

Chichi placed a large meal of bacon and eggs and pancakes on the table and sat down at her seat.

As soon as she'd sat down, the two demi-Saiyans tore into the food, chewing and swallowing almost faster than the eye could see. Within a few minutes, all the food was gone from the table and there was two satisfied demi-Saiyans, which was always a good thing.

"Thanks for breakfast, mom" Gohan said, standing up and taking his plates to the sink.

"Yeah! It was yummy!" Goten said happily, taking his plates to the sink and then running off to his room to play with his toys.

"You better go to school now" Chichi suggested to Gohan

"Yeah, see ya mom" Gohan said, walking towards the door

"Bye Goten" he yelled down the hallway

"Bye!" Goten yelled back, more preoccupied with his toys than saying goodbye to his brother.

Gohan went out the front door and took off into the air in the direction of Satan City.

He took his time flying there because he knew that he could go faster if he needed to and besides, he was really early anyway.

When he finally arrived at Satan City, he landed in an alleyway and started to walk down the street.

When he turned the corner, he saw some guys outside a bank, holding guns, yelling something.

'Oh man! I suppose I should do something' he thought and quickly ducked back into the alleyway and went Super-Saiyan.

He stepped out of the alleyway again and dealt with the thieves accordingly, a punch there, a punch there and a nice imprint of his hand in their car, it should make them think twice before doing something like that again.

After taking care of the thieves, Gohan flew off to another alleyway so he could transform out of super without showing the gathering audience his true identity.

He dropped out of super and made his way to school without any more hiccups.

Gohan stopped in front of OSH.

'So this is it' he thought, then shrugged and made his way to the office.

"Excuse me" he said, getting the attention of the blonde lady sitting at the desk, obviously more interested at putting nail polish on than the administration.

The blonde looked up and snapped her pink bubble gum "Well, aren't you a cutie? What do you want hon?" she said, in a voice practically dripping with sweetness.

"Yeah…uh…I'm new here and I need a timetable" Gohan said, wanting to get away from the creepy blonde as soon as he could. (I have nothing against blondes, in fact, I am a blonde, although I just streaked my hair with blue...I just thought that it'd fit the story better)

"Okay, hon, what's your name"

"Son Gohan"

The blonde typed his name into the computer and snapped her gum impatiently as the printer printed his timetable out.

She tore off the paper and handed it to Gohan.

"There you go, hon, don't forget, you can come visit me whenever you want" she said, winking at him before he walked away.

Gohan walked out of the office, feeling really weirded out.

"Man, if this is what school's like, I'm not sure if I'm gonna like it" he muttered to himself as he looked around for his classroom.

5 minutes later, he'd found the classroom.

"This is it" he said to himself and knocked on the door.

He heard some shuffling coming from in the room and then the door opened.

"Yes, hi" the middle-aged male teacher said grouchily as he opened the door

"Uh, I'm new and I'm supposed to be in this class" Gohan said, and handed his timetable to the teacher, who inspected it and returned it to Gohan.

"Very well then" he said, walking back to the front of the class, motioning for Gohan to follow him.

"Class, we have a new student today, this is Gohan, please make him feel welcome"

Gohan looked around at the many students in the class, all the girls were staring at him and the guys were glaring at him.

"Gohan, could you go take a seat up there by Erasa" he said, pointing at an empty seat next to a girl with short blonde hair.

He made his way up to the seat and sat down.

"Hi! I'm Erasa!" the blonde introduced herself enthusiastically

"Hi" Gohan said shyly, he wasn't used to all this attention and to tell you the truth, he didn't really want it.

Erasa didn't seem to get the fact that he didn't really want to talk, and she went on to introduce the two people sitting next to her.

"This is Videl" she said, pointing to the girl with long black hair "Guess what! Her dad's Hercule, yeah, the guy who beat Cell!"

Gohan was taken a bit unaware with that comment, he didn't know that someone else had taken the credit.

Recovering quickly, he said "Yeah, that's nice" noticing the weird look Videl gave him when he didn't make a big song and dance about it. Really, who would if they knew the truth…?

Erasa went on to introduce the boy sitting next to Videl.

"This is Sharpner"

"Hi" Gohan said, not really wanting to bother with these introductions.

Gohan turned his attention to the teacher and tried not to listen as Sharpner went on about another nerd joining the class, but unfortunately, his Saiyan hearing enabled him to hear every word.

Class passed slowly and at lunchtime, he was walking around, looking for a private spot where he could eat his lunch without distraction.  He passed Erasa, Videl and Sharpner sitting under a tree on the field.

"Yoo-hoo! Gohan! Over here!" Erasa shouted, waving her hands to get his attention.

'Dammit!' he thought as he looked over towards the three sitting under the tree. Erasa was beckoning him to come over. Gohan shrugged, 'Might as well, nothing better to do' he thought as he walked over to the shade of the tree.

"Sit down" Erasa instructed as he reached the tree "You look lost, you can hang with us" she smiled sweetly at him, but Gohan didn't get the hidden meaning behind the smile…

Gohan sat down next to Erasa, who immediately started asking him questions about himself.

"So, where do you live?" she asked

"439 Mountain Area" Gohan replied 

"Wow! That's far out, you must get up really early to get to school at that time" Erasa said, she was doing most of the talking, Videl was staring at him, but not like the other girls did, and Sharpner was more interested in a group of pretty girls walking past.

"Not really" Gohan said "Anyway, what is this? Interrogation?"

"No, I'm just interested about you" Erasa said, smiling at him again.

Gohan tried to answer the rest of her questions politely, without giving too much of himself away and without talking too much, Erasa was doing enough talking for the both of them.

Eventually the bell rang and they started walking to their next class, and Gohan remembered that he hadn't eaten his lunch. Oh well, he'd have to wait until he got home, he'd gone without food for much longer before, but as long as he got a good feed after, he was okay.

Trying to ignore his growling stomach, he followed the other three into the next class, Maths.

"Okay class, today we're going to be doing advanced algebra," the maths teacher said

He started writing examples on the board for them to copy into their notes.

Gohan stared at the board in disbelief, he'd learnt this when he was at least 7, if not 8 years old! 

'Oh well, I guess I'll just play along' he thought as he copied the examples into his book.

Gohan finished the problems in his book and the teacher was working them out on the board for the class to mark their work.

He had just finished the last one when Gohan put up his hand.

"Yes, uh…Gohan?" he said

"The answer for 2b is wrong, it should be 21 ½, not 18" Gohan said, correcting the teacher's mistake.

The teacher quickly turned to look back at the problems and looked over the one Gohan had corrected.

"Yes, so it is" he mumbled to himself as he changed the answer.

The class erupted into a chorus of "Ooohhhhs" when the teacher admitted his mistake.

The rest of the class passed quickly, and soon it was time for the last class of the day, PE. (Had to be. =)!)

Gohan followed the rest of his class to the gym and they sat on the ground, waiting for the PE teacher to come.

When the PE teacher finally entered the room, Gohan saw that he was a force not to be reckoned with. He was old, slightly balding, with the most ridiculous mustache that you'd ever seen and he had the sternest look and the wrinkles all over his face didn't help soften the look either. He kinda looked like a drill sergeant from the army from all the way back in WWI…probably was, he looked old enough.

Out of all the things that Gohan'd done today, this must have been the most amusing thing.

'I think I'm going crazy' Gohan thought in exasperation

When the class noticed that the teacher had entered the room, they jumped to their feet and stood straight and tall, as if been called to attention. Gohan quickly jumped to his feet too, he didn't really want to get in trouble on the first day, by messing with a teacher.

"Class!" the teacher barked "Today we're going to play soccer!"

Gohan subconsciously moved his hands over his ears, his Saiyan hearing was sensitive enough, the teacher didn't need to yell, and he didn't really want to go deaf.

"Everyone out!" he commanded and the class immediately jogged outside to the field.

When they got out to the field, the teacher dumped a bag of soccer balls on the ground and instructed the class to jog 5 times around the school. Unfortunately the school was very large…

They set off, to Gohan, this was child's play, he didn't even need to put any effort into it, and without knowing it, he'd passed all the rest of his classmates and finished his 5 laps before most people had even started their 4th, and without even breaking a sweat!

He stopped when he got back to the field and saw the teacher sitting on a seat at the side of the field, with his back to Gohan, looking at a magazine.

Gohan came up behind the teacher and cleared his throat.

Startled, the teacher jumped and fumbled around with the magazine, trying to close it.

He stood up, glaring at Gohan.

Gohan looked down at the magazine on the seat, and looked at the title. It said 'Playboy'. The name sounded familiar. His thoughts drifted to a perverted old man who lived on an island in the middle of nowhere. That's where he'd seen this magazine before.

"Just what do you think you're doing!" the PE teacher barked

"I finished" Gohan said

"Well, have you just. Do another lap! That'll teach you for sneaking up on me!" the teacher yelled, pointing towards the direction that Gohan was supposed to run in.

Gohan sighed and ran off, completing the lap quickly and getting back before the rest of the class.

This time, he didn't go up to the teacher, he just waited by the edge of the field for the rest of the class.

By the time the class finally came, the teacher had put his magazine away, and was ready for the class, but he kept sneaking looks at Gohan, some nervous looks and some glares.

The teacher explained what they were going to do…i.e. soccer.

"Okay, Videl, you captain one team, and Sharpner, you captain the other team" Videl and Sharpner stood up at the front of the class "Okay, pick your teams"

The two teens worked their way through the class until finally they got to Gohan, who was the last one left.

Sharpner quickly said, "You can have nerd-boy" and stalked off to the other side of the field, his team following closely behind.

"Okay then, come on Gohan" Videl said and she motioned for her team to come in so they could talk strategy.

~~~

**Author's Notes: There, the end of another chapter...I have a question, do you guys think I should bring in a bad guy from outer space or something like that, and make it more actiony or should I just make it a sweet, sappy story about Gohan and Videl?**

Oh, and to Mrs. Videl Son, I probably won't bring Goku back, but I'm not sure yet, but don't worry, Gohan isn't like this throughout the whole fic, I'm not that mean…


	4. Tough Questions and Large Lunches

~~~

Hero? Doubt it

Chapter 3 – Tough Questions and Large Lunches

Written By RJ

~~~

Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ. I don't get paid for this, but you're welcome to if you want to seeing as I only have about 67cents in my bank account until I get paid this week.

Responses to Reviews:

DBZfan1010: Wow. Well, here you go…enjoy.

Rini Sayian-jin: *salutes* Sweet and sappy it is then…but ya gotta wait 'til later on…

Samara-chan: Sowwi, but this is gonna be a g/v pairing fic…sorry, but at the moment they just become friends and it won't be like that until later on so I hope I don't lose a reviewer eh?

Asmodeus: I dunno when it'll be finished but I am planning on finishing it, so stick around kay? If u want me to email u when I post a new chappie then tell me and I will.

Everyone: I'm really sorry this chappie took so long. Man, I hope you guys haven't deserted me eh? I was just concentrating on my other story because it's my most successful story with over 200 reviews for only 12 chapters. And I also had a bit of writer's block, but not for this chapter, I just wanted to get some more finished before I posted this one. And I also had to work quite a bit. And my last excuse was that I started writing another story, but I wanna finish the story b4 I post it so I was spending some time on that.

~~~

The class was spread all over the field in two definitive teams.

Gohan was put as goalie, because no one thought that he could be much good at the other positions, and if wouldn't get to the goal if they could help it.

So Gohan was standing in the middle of the goal, watching the game take place down the other end of the field. 

Suddenly, one of the opposition kicked the ball out of the crowd of people and it came up towards Gohan's end of the field.

"Finally, some action" Gohan said to himself as Sharpner dribbled the ball up the field.

The defence players tried to tackle Sharpner, but they missed and soon it was down to Gohan and Sharpner.

He could see a smirk form on his face as he got closer and closer, and at the impossible to miss range, he shot.

Both the teams watched as the ball flew into the goal.

But just when they thought it was over, Gohan seemingly just appeared in front of the ball and caught it.

The teacher was just about to blow his whistle to signal the scoring of a goal when he realised what happened and he stood there, eyes wide and mouth open.

Gasps were heard among the two teams, it wasn't normal for a person to just appear somewhere, especially when they were originally over one side of the goal and just appeared over the other side.

Videl shook herself out of her speechlessness and yelled out "Kick it, Gohan!"

Following his orders, Gohan drop-kicked the ball as softly as he could, and it went all the way to the other end of the field to a waiting striker and they scored a goal.

Soon after, the game was finished and the bell rang.

Gohan went to his locker straight after school, Chichi had said that she wanted him home as soon as possible after school.

He got the books that he needed for homework and he turned around to see Videl standing behind him.

"Uhhh…hi?" he said taking a step back in surprise

"How did you do that?" she demanded

"Do what?" he asked, trying to act innocent

"What you did in the goal"

"What? I don't remember doing anything, oh, look at the time, I gotta go" Gohan said, then ran off down the hall, leaving a very annoyed Videl.

"I'll just follow him" she said and stalked off down the hall after Gohan.

She followed him outside and he turned left and walked down the road.

Videl followed Gohan at a distance, but he must have seen her or something because he turned down another street and disappeared from sight.

Frustrated, Videl turned around and walked in the direction of her house, trying to forget about the strange new kid.

Gohan flew home as fast as he could to make up for lost precious training time.

'Oh man, that girl's really demanding, I'd better be careful around her' he thought

Gohan landed outside his house and went inside.

"Brother!!!" an orange and blue blur yelled and ran at full speed into Gohan.

"Hey Goten" Gohan said, tickling his brother, before putting him down and saying hello to his mother.

Gohan made his way to his bedroom so he could get changed into his gi.

A couple of minutes later, he emerged out of his bedroom wearing his gi, then he went outside and took off from the front doorstep.

With his usual training destination in mind, Gohan flew quickly through the air, trying to think of ways to avoid the never-ending questions from his schoolmates, namely Videl, and in a way, Erasa.

Sighing, Gohan landed in the middle of his usual training area, getting ready for his usual vigorous training session.

Meanwhile, at the Satan Mansion, Videl was unleashing her frustration on the punching bag conveniently placed in the corner of her own private gym. Her father had always insisted that she stay in shape, so he gave her a private gym just for her to use.

The new punching bag was receiving the same beating as the old one, which had been split the day before, when Videl had been angry at her father for not being home again, no doubt he was off with another one of his girlfriends.

Sitting down on the bench at the side of the room, Videl wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, panting hard.

"That's enough for today" she said and made her way over to the other side of the room, where she picked a towel off the top of the pile in a little cubby.

She wrapped the towel around her neck and went into the bathroom so she could have a shower.

She stripped off her clothes and stepped into the warm jets of water, letting them run over her body, relaxing her muscles.

'What's up with me today? I haven't been focusing as well as I usually do' she thought 'Could it be something to do with a certain new kid?' Videl shook her head 'He's no different from anyone else'

'But he is, that's why he annoys you, he's more mysterious than the average kid from school' she mentally argued with herself

Videl sighed and switched off the jets of water. She stepped out of the shower and dried herself.

"This'll have to wait" she said firmly and got dressed again and made her way into her room so she could do her homework.

The next day, Gohan got up before dawn and he went outside and sat in his favourite spot. He sat with his legs crossed, and his eyes closed, floating half a metre off the ground, meditating.

He sat there for hours, until his mother called him inside for breakfast.

He untangled himself and made his way back up to the house.

"Morning" he said to Chichi and Goten as he sat down at the table.

"Morning brother!" Goten yelled

"Goten, please don't yell all the time" Chichi said sternly to the small boy

"Okie mommy" Goten said, picking up his knife and fork and holding them up in the air, getting ready to dig into his breakfast.

"Okay, boys, here it is" Chichi said, as she turned around and piled plates and plates on the table.

"Mmm, yummy!" Goten said and quickly dug into his breakfast

Gohan finished his breakfast quickly and he left the table to get ready for his second day of school.

Videl was in her room rushing around, trying to get ready for school, so she could be on time. She'd been up since 5:00am, training for the upcoming World Tournament. She was rushing around her room gathering books and pens and pencils, dumping them all into her bag and was currently trying to force the zipper closed. 

"Close, dammit!" she yelled at the zipper, bringing one of the maids rushing into her bedroom to see what was going on. The maid was greeted with a horrific scene of clean clothes spilling over their drawers to one side of the room, dirty clothes littering the floor, Videl sitting in the middle of an unmade bed, trying to close the zipper on her overstuffed bag and a plate of uneaten food on her bedside table, which was already attracting ants and other scavenging bugs.

The maid sighed, she'd have a lot of work to do when Videl left.

When Videl finally got the zipper closed, she shouldered the bag and triumphantly left the room, leaving the maid surveying the mess with the look of dismay on her face.

Gohan was flying as fast as he could to school, and as usual, he was late again, he'd been held up by his mother and brother, for various reasons, and he had turned Super-Saiyan in an effort to get there faster.

"Come on, come on, faster, must go faster" he muttered to himself over and over as he neared Satan City.

Finally he reached Orange Star High School and landed on the roof.

He quickly powered down and ran down the stairs and along the corridor to his class. He skidded to a stop in front of the room, his shoes squealing on the floor, making a large skid mark along the floor.

"Uhhh, hehe" he laughed sheepishly as he put his hand behind his head in the typical Son fashion.

He opened the door to his class and quickly rushed up to his seat, apologizing to the teacher, and sat down, looking around at his classmates, who had all decided to stare at him for some unknown reason.

He smiled sheepishly and pulled his books out of his bag and placed them on the desk, ready to start the lesson.

Videl looked at Gohan who was busy pulling books out of his bag, trying to pretend that everyone wasn't looking at him. He'd arrived a few minutes before she did and was surprised to see that he was late, she'd thought that he was a major bookworm and would never be late, he seemed pretty dedicated to his education, because if you traveled that much every day, then you must be, but then, that's probably the reason why he's always late.

Her thoughts were broken into when she heard the teacher start the lesson, and she snapped to attention, and started copying down the notes that the teacher was writing on the board, pushing her questions about Gohan to the back of her mind for a later date.

Lunchtime came quickly, much to Gohan's delight. He rushed off to the roof so he could eat his large lunch in peace, he didn't want to be stuck in the same situation as yesterday, he actually wanted to eat his lunch in peace, without torrents of questions aimed at him.  He released his lunch from the capsule that Bulma had given him especially for this purpose. He was just about to tuck into his large meal when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

His mind worked quickly, his Saiyan hearing enabled him to tell by the footsteps that it was only one person, they were light, so it was most likely a girl, but they were forceful so he could tell that they had a purpose for coming up here.

'Dammit' he thought and re-capsulated his lunch, people might freak if they saw that he had so much lunch.

Quickly getting into a non-suspicious position, i.e. standing to the side of the roof pretending to look out over the city below, he listened out carefully for the intruder's next moves.

The footsteps came closer. They were rather light, Gohan guessed that the owner was probably trying to sneak up on him, but not much could get around his Saiyan hearing.

He turned around to stare…Videl…right in the face.

His eyes widened, he didn't quite know who he was expecting, probably just some random person, coming up here to look at the view, but he sure didn't expect it to be Videl, he silently prepared for another torrent of questions, she seemed pretty intent on finding out about him and his past.

"Uhhh, hey Videl" he said, trying not to sound too uncertain "Whatcha doing?"

"Nothing" she said, looking him up and down like he had food on his shirt or he had green skin or something "I just want to know why you're up here all on your own"

"Well…uh…" Gohan said, trying to think of a good reason that would satisfy Videl's need for answers "I like it up here, cause I can see for miles, it makes me feel like I'm on top of the world" it wasn't a good reason, but it was worth a shot.

Videl looked him over again, something told her that he was lying, but she had no real reason to doubt him, he was from the country, maybe he'd never been on top of a tall building before.

She watched as he smiled sheepishly and put his hand behind his head in the usual Son gesture.

She looked at him one last time, then turned around, breaking her gaze and made her way back towards the stairs.

Gohan watched her leave, he'd expected a barrage of questions at least, but instead she just left. He felt kind of pleased, he'd get through another day without giving himself reason to do some serious damage to himself for letting something slip. Not that he would or anything…

He listened until the footsteps were totally gone and he couldn't hear them anymore before bringing out his food again.

He fished around in his pocket and brought out the small, round capsule and clicked the button on the top, then threw it on the ground. It transformed into a table with his food in a puff of smoke.

Gohan sat down beside the table and tucked into his food. This time, he was uninterrupted throughout the whole thing and managed to finish all of his meal within about 5 minutes.

After filling his stomach, Gohan sat back and sighed, it felt so good to have a full stomach again, now the wait was on for when he'd get his next meal.

~~~

**Author's Notes: There we go, the end of another chapter, I'll try and get the next one up sooner, but I'm not promising anything, it all depends on how many reviews I get...hehe, I've succumbed to bribery again....**

Laterz!!

~RJ~


	5. Revelations

~~~

Hero? Doubt it

Chapter 4 – Revelations

Written By RJ

~~~

Disclaimer: Can you guess what I'm gonna write here? Insert guess here

~~~

A week passed and things were much the same, Gohan was still trying to stay invisible at school, although he had made rather good friends with Erasa, Videl and even Sharpner, who still often teased him about being a nerd nonetheless. 

He was still given most girls undivided attention, which got on most teacher's nerves and he was even asked out quite a few times by girls whose names he didn't even know. It was quite freaky really. But like most things, you usually get used to it, and even though it was quite unnerving, Gohan got used to it eventually.

It had been a normal day at school, boring lessons, boring teachers, boring lunchtime, apart from the food of course. Gohan's day had been one big bore. He sighed as he shut his locker. 'Will my life ever get interesting again?' he thought but then quickly retracted that thought when he remembered that almost every time he'd thought that, they'd somehow ended up fighting an evil monster wanting to take over the world.

He was almost out the exit when he heard Videl calling him. After a few days of trying to figure out his secrets, she'd basically given up, although she still subconsciously sneakily slipped a question in here and there. Ever since she'd stopped, they'd become quite good friends, and Gohan had told her a little bit about his life. So she knew stuff like that he did martial arts and he had a little brother and a mother, she knew that he wasn't really that dedicated to his studies, and it was his mother who made him travel all this way to school, and she knew that his mother had made him study heaps and heaps when he was younger, which was why he was so smart now. Maybe sharing a little about himself had helped their friendship to grow, but whatever it was, she had become his closest friend and they felt quite at ease with each other now.

"Yeah, Videl?" Gohan asked as the girl ran to catch up with him

"Do you wanna come hang out for a while after school?" she asked

"Oh, I dunno, my mom wants me home straight after school" Gohan said

"Come on, spoilsport, it's a Friday and I'm sure you won't be that late home" Videl said, conveniently forgetting that he lived around 500 miles away, as she tugged on his arm, trying to pull him in the direction of the park where they usually hung out.

"Oh, alright then" Gohan said, following Videl towards the park "But I can't stay for too long"

Videl smiled at him and they continued to the park.

When they got to the park, they went and sat down on one of the benches, facing each other.

"Hey, are you going to enter the World Tournament?" Videl asked after a moment of silence

"What? Oh, I never really thought about it" Gohan said

"You should, if you've been doing martial arts for most of your life then you should be a really good fighter," Videl said "And I want all the best fighters in the competition, so there'll actually be some competition"

"I dunno, I'll have to see what my mom says, but I don't see why not, because both her and my dad fought in the 21st Tournament" Gohan said, but mostly he was thinking out loud.

"What? Your parents fought—" Videl was cut off by her watch beeping, she looked at it like she could kill it, then pressed the button on it so she could talk with the captain of the police force "Yes, Captain, go ahead" she said

~Videl, there's a major problem here, the mayor's been kidnapped and they're demanding a million dollars ransom~ Videl's eyes widened in shock ~One problem though, we don't know for sure where he's being held and we also think the Red Shark Gang's behind this, so be extra careful~

"Okay, Captain, I'm right on it" Videl said as she got up from her seat "I'm really sorry, Gohan, maybe we can talk another time" then she ran off down the street towards the police station.

Gohan sat on the bench wondering if Videl could handle this on her own, or whether she'd need his help, as Gold-fighter of course.

After pondering it for a few seconds, he decided that he'd help her, so quickly, he ran down the street looking for a suitable alleyway, when he found one, he transformed into Super-Saiyan and then took off into the air, looking out for Videl.

'I have to be careful around her, she'll notice that I've got the same clothes on, so I have to stay away from her if possible' Gohan thought

Suddenly, he spotted Videl's yellow jet copter flying to the right of him, and by the way she was slowly coming closer to him, he knew that she'd spotted him too.

'Dammit' Gohan thought as he suddenly changed his flying to a strange, erratic pattern, trying to lose her.

Videl gave up without much of a fight, probably cause she had another mission to complete. She sped up and flew towards the outskirts of the city.

Gohan flew close behind her, under her jet copter, because she obviously knew where she was going, and he had no idea, so it was better to follow her, and she couldn't see him behind her.

Videl flew towards a large abandoned warehouse and landed in the carpark next to it. Gohan broke away from the jet copter before she landed and, sneaking around the piles of rubbish in the car park, he followed Videl, who was making her way cautiously to the building. Ducking behind the last rubbish pile, Gohan watched as she kicked open the side door and cautiously made her way in.

Once she'd gone in, he waited a second before following her. For all he knew, it could be a trap, but he didn't want anything happening to her. 

Gohan tiptoed quickly to the door and peered into the dark interior. It was probably purposely dark, so Videl wouldn't be able to see. But Gohan could see perfectly. They obviously didn't count on a Saiyan coming into the building.

Smirking inwardly, Gohan followed Videl down the hallway at a distance, he knew where she was going because he could hear her soft footsteps echoing down the hallway.

Suddenly, he heard the soft, but unmistakeable click of a bullet being loaded into a gun.

Realisation dawned on him, they wanted to get Videl!

'No!' he screamed in his head 'Not like this!'

Gohan phased out and reappeared in front of Videl, who was obviously shocked that he was there, it's not like she heard him or anything.

In that split second, there was a loud gunshot and a bullet came firing out of nowhere. But Gohan, having Saiyan reflexes and super strength, caught the bullet like it was nothing at all. 

He heard Videl's gasp of surprise behind him and she whispered, "How did you do that?"

They heard footsteps disappear deeper into the building from the guy who just failed to do away with one of the city's main crime fighters.

"There's no time to explain, you should go, I can take care of this from here" Gohan said, quickly putting on a deeper voice so she wouldn't recognise it.

"No!" she whisper-shouted firmly "This is _my job, not yours, and I see all my jobs to the end!"_

Weighing up the consequences in a split second, Gohan decided that it would be better for her to come "Oh, alright then" he said "But you'd better stick close to me"

The two crime fighters made their way quickly down the dark hallway. Well, Gohan was making his way quickly, Videl was holding on to the back of his shirt, trying not to fall over at the pace he was going in the darkness.

"How can you go so fast?" she whispered to him

"Well…uhhh…" Gohan tried to think of an explanation quickly "There's no time for an explanation" he said hurriedly and he slowed his pace slightly because they were getting to the end of the long hallway.

At the end of the hallway, there was a bulky metal door. Gohan put his ear up to the door to see if he could hear anyone on the other side.

"Stand back" he instructed Videl, who moved back away from the door.

Gohan punched the door and his arm went right through the door and he pulled it off its hinges.

As soon as the door had been discarded of, he saw the mayor sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, under a single dim light, like in a movie scene.

He heard Videl gasp from behind him, she tried to get past Gohan so she could get to the mayor.

Gohan put his arm out and wouldn't let her go any further. Videl soon quit struggling when she realised that she couldn't get past.

"It's a trap," he whispered really quietly.

At that, Gohan took a step into the room and instantly, bullets fired at him from all sides. He dodged them all easily and dealt with each of the armed offenders accordingly. Let's just say that they wouldn't be picking up a gun again anytime soon.

While the kidnappers were distracted by Gohan's bullet-catching-and-dodging antics, Videl snuck forward and untied the mayor, who was still semi-doped up on whatever the kidnappers had given him to put him to sleep.

Videl helped the drowsy mayor out of the room while Gohan tied up the kidnappers, ready for the police to pick up.

Videl took the mayor slowly back down the dark hallway. It was more difficult this time, without the Gold-fighter leading the way. 

'Man, that guy must have some special senses or something, he always senses things before I do. He's like Superman or Spiderman or something' Videl thought 'And what's up with the catching bullets? Does he think he has something to prove or something—' her thoughts were interrupted by the man in question himself. He suddenly appeared behind her and asked, "Are you okay there?"

"Yes, I'm fine" Videl said, kind of annoyed that he'd even asked the question. She was the daughter of the strongest man in the world, for goodness sake!

They emerged out of the building after what seemed like an eternity and Videl stood outside, squinting her eyes, trying to get used to the glare of the sun.

Taking advantage of her temporary blindness, Gohan suddenly took off and flew quickly away so there wasn't a chance that he could get caught out.

Videl watched the small dot in the sky, which was the Gold-fighter, disappear into the distance.

'Dammit! He's too smart, why can't I ever see him? I want to know who he is!' Videl thought angrily, but quickly snapped back to attention when she heard police sirens coming down the road.

Shaking the still drowsy mayor awake from his not-so-glamorous position slumped against the side of a building, she walked over to the police cars entering the parking lot.

"The kidnappers are in the building in the room at the end of the hallway, they should be tied up, and the mayor was doped on something, but he should be okay soon" she said quickly to the Captain "If you don't mind, may I go now, I have some personal business to take care of"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead" the Captain said with a big smile on his face, "You've done more than enough work for today"

"Thanks Captain" Videl said, then released her jet copter and took to the skies, no doubt in search of the Gold-fighter.

Videl flew her jet copter over the city, scanning the skies for the Gold-fighter. She spotted him in the distance and a smirk formed on her face.

"I'm not letting you get away this time," she said as she gritted her teeth and pushed the jet copter to its limits, trying to catch up with the Gold-fighter.

"Come on! Can't this thing go any faster!?" she yelled to no one in particular, tightening her grip on the controls which were already pushed to the max.

"I'm gonna find out who you are Mr Gold-fighter" Videl said, but was interrupted by a loud beeping sound.

"What's wrong now?" she said as she looked down at the instrument panel and saw a flashing red light.

"Oops, that can't be good" she said when she saw that the label under the light said 'Low Fuel'.

"Dammit, now I gotta land somewhere" Videl said as she looked around for a suitable landing place. She spotted a deserted road and braced herself for a rough landing.

The jet copter touched down once, bounced and then finally came to a stop.

Videl jumped out of the copter and deciding that it was useless, she re-capsulated it.

She looked around, trying to find out where she was, and then blindly started walking down the street, hoping she was going in the right direction.

Gohan soon noticed the disappearance of the incessant buzzing noise and quickly turned around to see where Videl had gone.

He stopped and scanned the skies, but when he found nothing, Gohan decided to backtrack.

He flew back slowly from where he came, looking at the streets below, trying to find where Videl had gone.

'Why am I so intent on finding her and making sure she's okay?' Gohan wondered 'It's not like I like her or anything' (Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that, Gohan)

Suddenly he spotted her walking uncertainly down a street.

'Well, at least I found her' he thought as he flew past her to try and deliberately get her attention.

'There he is!' Videl thought as she saw the glowing form of none other than the Gold-fighter swoop past her.

'That's so cool, how I'd love to fly like that' Videl thought 'But how am I gonna learn if I don't find out who he is?'

That thought made her more determined to find out whom this mysterious Gold-fighter is and she ran down the street, following her flying quarry.

Gohan looked behind him to see Videl running down the street after him. He smirked inwardly, he knew she would never give up. Although he had no idea why he found that so funny.

'Maybe I should let her know who I am, it would get her off my back at least' Gohan thought

Deciding that it would probably be better if she knew, he made the quick decision to reveal his identity.

Seeing a suitable alleyway up ahead to his right, he quickly reached out with his ki to see if anyone was in there, finding no signs of life, except for a few rats and insects, he ducked into the alleyway and stood at the back and waited.

A few moments later, Videl burst into the alleyway, panting from her run. She stopped suddenly as if she was surprised to still see him there.

"Who are you?" she demanded

"Hold on and I'll show you" Gohan said "But you have to promise not to tell anybody, I only use this disguise to protect my family, they don't want any media attention, they just want to be like a normal family" his voice turned really sad when he mentioned his family, Videl started to worry that she'd dug a bit too deep.

"It's okay, if you really wanna stay a secret, I won't hassle you anymore" she said quickly

"No, I should tell you, you're kind of like my partner, so you should know my true identity"

At that, the Gold-fighter turned around to face Videl.

"………G-Go-han…?"

~~~

**Author's Notes: Hahaha, I made a cliffie!! How will Videl react to the fact that her superhero fighting partner is none other than her new best friend?? See in the next chappie of Hero? Doubt it!!**


	6. Shocking Discoveries

~~~

Hero? Doubt it

Chapter 5 – Shocking Discoveries

Written By RJ

~~~

Disclaimer: I don't own the wonderful anime by the name of Dragonball Z

A/N: Hey guys, soz bout the late update. To tell ya the truth, I was too lazy to post it, heh heh. Oh, and I had exams…does that count?

~~~

Videl just stood there, stunned. She would have never thought that the Gold-fighter was Gohan, of all people.

"H-how?" she stuttered

"How what?" Gohan asked

"How can you be so strong, how can you turn your hair golden, how come you kept yourself a secret all this time...?" Videl poured out the questions endlessly.

Gohan powered down and slumped down on a box at the end of the alleyway then looked down "This is what I didn't really want, but I guess I'll have to tell you, come sit down here, this is going to take a long time"

Videl cautiously moved down towards Gohan at the end of the alleyway and sat down on another box opposite him.

He lifted his head to look at her and Videl was surprised to see the vulnerability in his eyes, she'd always thought that he was strong, strong in personality anyway.

"Where should I start?" Gohan said, "Well, why don't you ask and I'll answer"

"Okay, let's start with, how can your hair go golden?" Videl said

"Oh" Gohan said, Videl could tell that she'd touched on a sensitive topic, but she really wanted to know the answer, "Well, you'll probably freak out when I tell you this, but I'm not really…human" he said the last bit really quietly, but Videl could just pick up what he said

"What!? Not really human!? What do you mean!?" she yelled as she stood up

"Shhh!" Gohan said, looking around nervously to see if anyone had heard and motioning for Videl to sit down at the same time "I'm half human…and half Saiyan"

"Saiyan? What's a Saiyan?" Videl asked

"They're from the planet Vegeta, it got blown up a while ago, but my dad and some other Saiyans were off the planet when it got blown up and some of the Saiyan race survived"

"So…your dad's…Saiyan…and you're…half Saiyan?" Videl asked, saying the word 'Saiyan' carefully, as if testing it

"Yeah, sorry I told you, I should have known that you'd think I was a freak" Gohan said, looking down again "I guess I should go now"

"No" Videl said quickly, putting her hand on Gohan's leg so he wouldn't get up "Please tell me more"

Gohan looked up and they locked eyes for a long moment "I guess it wouldn't hurt" he said, breaking the gaze.

"So, how come you're so strong?" Videl asked

"Well, Saiyans naturally are stronger than humans, so lifting buses and running 40km in five minutes and all that is child's play for me, but we can also manipulate our ki to form ki blasts and all that, even though humans can do it also, if they are taught, we also get stronger quicker than humans, like we could both train for an hour, but I'd get more out of it, but only work like that if we were at the same power level"

"Hold up, what's ki?" Videl asked, looking very confused

"Oh, right, only a few humans know about ki" Gohan said, trying to think of a good explanation

"So…what is it?"

"It's the energy that everyone has in their bodies" Gohan said, after a little thought, "Here, I'll show you"

He cupped his hands together and inside them, he made a small ball of light.

"Wow" Videl breathed, inspecting the ball from all angles "How'd you do that?"

"All you do is bring your energy out of your body and into your hands" Gohan said, and let the ki ball be absorbed back into his body

"Cool, can you teach me?" Videl asked, a huge smile on her face, her eyes pleading him for lessons

"Oh, okay?" Gohan said, unable to resist her smile and puppy dog eyes.

"I probably should go home now" Gohan said, "When do you want your lessons?"

"What about right now?" Videl asked, "My dad's not home at the moment, he's on another business trip" she scowled when she thought of the business trip, that's what he told everybody, but it was rarely a business trip, more likely on another trip with another one of his girlfriends, but Gohan didn't need to know that "I also dismissed the maids and cooks, there's no one at home, so no one will know if I don't come home for the weekend…" she trailed off, leaving the sentence open for Gohan to suggest something.

Gohan seemed indecisive about something for a second, and Videl almost retracted her sentence, but finally he said "Why don't you come and stay at my house for the weekend, I could teach you then"

Videl smiled "Okay then, but how am I going to get my stuff?"

"I'll take you round to your house and we can grab it then"

The duo got up and walked out of the alleyway and down the street towards Videl's house.

"You know, it would be a lot faster if we fly" Gohan said, looking around and seeing nobody around, he transformed and picked Videl up and flew off to her mansion before she could say anything.

"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?" Videl said, starting to slightly panic, but when she calmed down a bit, she thought that she was probably much safer with Gohan than she was in her jet copter.

"We're flying, do you want to walk again?" Gohan asked, sounding slightly worried that he'd upset her

"No, it's okay, you should have just warned me, that's all" Videl said, starting to enjoy the ride now.

"I will next time, look that was much faster anyway" Gohan said, as they approached her mansion, the trip was about 50 times faster than if they'd walked, and from what she'd seen the Gold-fighter do before, that was slow.

They landed in front of the house and Gohan let go of Videl who walked up to the door and unlocked it with her key.

"Come in" she said and indicated for Gohan to follow her inside.

Gohan powered down and followed Videl inside.

He stopped in the doorway when he saw how big her house was inside.

"It's huge!" Gohan exclaimed

"Oh, you get used to it" Videl said, walking up the stairs "Are you coming or what?"

"Oh, right" Gohan said, quickly shutting the door and following Videl up the stairs.

They walked along a long corridor and Videl opened the door at the end and walked in.

"This is my room," she said

Gohan followed her in the room and looked around at her huge room. There was a pretty worn punching bag in the back corner, a double bed in the middle of the room, a window seat next to the door to a balcony, doors to a walk in wardrobe and an bathroom were to the right side of the room and a desk with a computer on it to the left side next to her bed.

Videl opened up her bag and tipped her school things out onto her bed, then she went into her wardrobe and stuffed a couple of changes of clothes in it and other necessities, such as a toothbrush, money and her cell phone.

"Okay, I think that's all" she said as she shouldered the bag "Now, what do you say to a snack before we go?"

Gohan's face lit up "I'd never say no to a snack" he smiled the Son Grin™ at Videl and she led the way to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Videl opened each of the cupboards, looking for a suitable snack.

"Oh, here it is" she said, pulling out a couple of packets of chips and dip.

"Sit down" she said, indicating to the table, which had seats neatly arranged around it.

"Here" Videl said and pushed the bags of chips over to Gohan "You look hungry"

Gohan took the bag gratefully and dug in, but not eating as fast as what he usually did, just so he didn't totally freak her out.

Gohan finished his bag of chips and waited patiently for Videl to finish hers, cause apparently she didn't eat as fast as he did.

"Do you want to go now?" he said once she'd finished hers.

"Yeah" Videl said, "Are you going to fly or shall we take my jet copter?"

"I thought we'd fly, but only if it's okay with you" Gohan said

"Yeah, it's fine"

The two made their way outside and Gohan picked up Videl and took off in the direction of his home.

"Just how long does it take to get to your house anyway?" Videl asked

"At this speed…I'd say around half an hour" Gohan said

"Really? It'd take over two hours in a car" Videl exclaimed

"Yeah, but I don't have to go around corners and all that, I just take the straight path, and if you wanted to go get there faster, I could go way faster than this"

"No, it's fine, I don't mind going slow" Videl said, smiling, just enjoying the flight.

Now that the conversation had stopped, Videl turned her attention to the rugged landscape that passed below them. It was beautiful, she'd always liked the country better than the city. Gohan was lucky to be able to live all the way out here.

They passed a large clearing surrounded by rocks on the edge of the forest and the desert. Most of the rocks had large scars in them like they'd been cut by something really huge. 'Strange' Videl thought

She looked up and in the distance she saw a small cloud with a little boy sitting on it. She blinked, trying to determine whether her eyes were telling her the truth or not.

But it seemed that her eyes were not lying because the cloud came closer and the little boy sitting on it was waving frantically at them, trying to get their attention.

Videl inspected the boy as he came closer, it was clear that he was Gohan's brother, apart from the fact that he was yelling out "Brother!", he also looked very similar to Gohan, apart from his mass of spiky hair.

"Hey, Goten" Gohan said ruffling his little brother's hair as they flew past

Goten turned and flew beside them on the little cloud.

"Who's that?" he asked

"Oh, this is Videl, my friend from school, she's gonna stay here for the weekend" Gohan said

"Oh" Goten chirped "Hi Videl!"

"Hi" Videl replied before Goten flew off into the distance on the little cloud.

"Don't worry about him, he's very hyperactive" Gohan said "He'll fly about on that thing all day. We're almost home anyway"

The rest of the trip, i.e. 2 minutes, was done in silence, both teenagers had things on their minds.

2 minutes later, Gohan landed in front of a small yellow house.

"Is this your place?" Videl asked

Gohan nodded "Something wrong?"

Videl shook her head "No, nothing's wrong, I just think it's cute, that's all"

Gohan inspected the house for a long moment "I suppose you could call it that" he deducted.

Videl laughed and followed Gohan as he led the way inside.

Gohan made his way to the kitchen, where he was sure that his mother would be, she was always here around this time, after all, it took a long time to cook for 2 demi-Saiyans.

"Hi mom" he said

Chichi turned around and saw Gohan with a girl and raised her eyebrow questionably.

"Mom, this is Videl, oh, and Videl, this is my mom, Chichi. Mom, Videl's going to spend the weekend with us" Gohan said, and seeing that Chichi wanted more explaining added "I'm going to teach her how to use her ki and fly and all that"

"Oh, so she knows then" Chichi said

"Yeah, I told her about Saiyans and all that"

Chichi's expression changed to a relieved one, probably because she wouldn't have to cover up things all the time "Nice to meet you, Videl"

"Nice to meet you too, Mrs Son" Videl said politely

"Please call me Chichi" Chichi said with a smile, "Mrs Son makes me sound too old"

Gohan and Videl left the kitchen and made their way to Gohan's room.

The went into Gohan's room, which he obviously shared with Goten, because of the toys all over the floor, which they basically had to wade through.

"Goten gets a lot of his toys from Trunks" Gohan stated when they finally got out of the mess of toys and to the sanctuary of Gohan's side of the room.

"Trunks? Do you mean Trunks Briefs?" Videl asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"You know Trunks? How do you know Trunks? Do you know Bulma?" Videl asked

"I've known Bulma all my life and Trunks and Goten are best friends"

"How do you know Bulma?"

"My dad and Bulma met when they were young and they've been friends ever since"

"So, where's your dad now?"

The room fell silent as the seemingly innocent question made Gohan stop talking suddenly and when Videl looked at him, his face seemed to be torn with raw emotion.

She was kind of shocked when she saw him like that, it shouldn't be like that, she wasn't used to him being like that, it just wasn't right.

She was about to apologise about the question when suddenly, Goten came bounding into the room, totally oblivious of any tension.

"Brother! Mom says dinner's almost ready!" Goten chirped cheerfully

Gohan's face smoothed over when he saw his brother and said "Okay then, let's go wash up"

Gohan and Videl followed Goten into the bathroom where they all washed their hands and made their way to the dining room and sat at the table.

Goten and Gohan sat in their usual places and Videl sat in Goku's place.

To Gohan, this looked weird, he was used to having his father sit there, and it seemed strange to have Videl sit there, but somehow it seemed way better than having no one sit there, it seemed that if Goku didn't sit there, then it was right that Videl was the one who should. (Did that make any sense at all!?)

Chichi placed the many plates onto the table and Videl watched as she kept on adding more and more plates of food.

'Surely they can't eat that much, I mean, Gohan eats a lot, but surely they don't eat _this much' Videl thought_

Chichi finished serving the meal and sat down in her usual place. At that, the two demi-Saiyans dug into their food fast and ferociously, scooping the food into their mouths, chewing and swallowing faster than any human could imagine.

Chichi seemed unfazed by all this eating and she continued her meal, at a regular pace, and finished at the same time as the boys, even though they had consumed over 10 times more food than what she had.

Videl turned her attention to her food and concentrated on eating what she had on her plate.

Soon she realised that everyone else had finished and they were all waiting patiently for her to finish.

"Uh, sorry guys, I guess I don't eat as fast as you" she apologised

"Nah, don't worry, _nobody eats as fast as us!" Goten chirped cheerfully, as always, giving her the infamous Son Grin™._

Videl smiled back at the energetic youngster and finished up her meal.

When she was finished, everyone took the plates back into the kitchen and helped with the washing up.

Chichi cleared the dishes and put them on the bench and Goten floated in front of the sink as he washed the dishes and he handed them to Gohan who dried them with his ki and put them in a pile on the other side of the bench, it worked like a well-oiled machine.

"What do you want me to do?" Videl asked, she felt quite useless standing by watching.

"Um, you could put these away" Gohan said, indicating a pile of dried dishes to the side of him.

Videl picked up the pile of plates and under Gohan's direction, she put them all in their correct places.

Soon after, all the washing up was done and the three made their way into the lounge for some good quality blobbing in front of the TV.

Gohan and Goten slumped messily on the couch and Videl sat neatly on the end next to Gohan, as she'd always been taught to be polite at other people's houses.

Goten clicked on the TV and they watched some cartoon until Gohan got sick of it and wrestled the controller off Goten and changed the channel.

The next hour proved itself to be the Channel Wars, as Gohan would wrestle the controller off Goten, but Goten would always find a way to get it back and change the channel so he could watch the cartoon channel.

So on the Channel Wars went, at the moment, it was on a soap opera that Gohan had flipped to, then he changed it to a news channel, then quickly flicked past the cartoon channel and stopped on another news channel, Hercule's picture filled the screen.

"Hey, stop for a second" Videl said, leaning forward to see what the news people were going on about.

The two brothers stopped right in their tracks, both of them still gripping the controller tightly in the middle of the two, neither of them giving an inch, but they turned their attention to the TV.

~And tonight, we have the most up-to-date news on Hercule's latest sex scandal. We'll go to our reporter on site for a live update~

~~~

**Author's Notes: There, it's finished, heh heh, and I left ya with another semi-cliffie! Hahaha…well, you guys better go review now cuz the more reviews I have, the more likely I am to get inspiration to write and the quicker I get the chapter out…**

^.^

~RJ~


	7. Ki Training

~~~

Hero? Doubt it

Chapter 6 – Ki Training

Written By RJ

~~~

Disclaimer: Nope, I'm pretty sure I don't own dbz. All I own is this computer and about half a packet of M&Ms. =S

~~~

Videl gasped as the news reporter covered the story. Hercule had been at it again.

'I knew that this would get discovered some day' Videl thought 'All his girlfriends and all, why does he do it?'

Gohan looked at Videl sitting next to him. The news was obviously getting to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just knew that this'd get him in trouble some day, I told him that he'd get discovered, but no, he doesn't even listen to his own daughter" Videl said "Now the media will be all over me too when he comes home, I really hate it" she looked Gohan in the eyes, like she was pleading with him to make this not true.

"Uhhh…maybe you could…stay here until this blows over" Gohan suggested hesitantly

"Really? You mean it?" Videl said, obviously pleased at the suggestion

"Yeah, sure, I'll just have to ask mom, but I'm pretty sure it'll be okay" Gohan said, and then seeing that the story was finished, he flipped the channel again.

"Goten!" Chichi's call rang through the house "Time for bed!"

"Awww, mom, I wanted to stay up" the little demi-Saiyan pouted as his mother came into the room to reinforce her order.

"I can't have you being tired tomorrow," Chichi said "Off to bed now, young man" she pointed towards Goten's bedroom, showing the boy that was the only way to go.

"Night squirt" Gohan said to Goten's retreating form.

"Night Gohan"

As soon as Goten was gone, Gohan grabbed the TV remote possessively and he pointed it at the TV and turned it to his favourite channel.

Time passed quickly and soon the two teens were quite tired and well ready to go to bed.

"Well, I'm hitting the sack" Gohan said "You can sleep in my bed if you want, I'll take the couch"

"No, it's okay, I'll take the couch" Videl said, she didn't really want to put him out more than what she was already.

"No, I insist, besides, you're used to luxury, not that I'd say sleeping next to my brother was luxury, you'll probably end up being punched or something during the night, but it'd be better than the couch" Gohan said and sat possessively on the couch

Videl laughed "All right then, if you insist" she went off to the bathroom to get changed into her pyjamas.

Gohan went into his room and got changed into his pyjamas, which consisted of some old track pants, showing off his incredibly well toned body. (Hehe, drool ^.^)

He grabbed a blanket from the cupboard and made his way back out to the lounge and chucked the blanket on the couch.

Videl finished changing into her pyjamas, which were just old shorts and a large t-shirt.

She came out into the lounge where Gohan was and stopped and stared when she saw him with out a shirt on.

"Uhhh, Gohan?" she said, not knowing quite what else to say.

"Yeah?" he said, totally oblivious to the effect he was having on Videl "Oh, you'll want me to show you where you'll be sleeping"

At that, he got up and led the way to his bedroom and Videl followed close behind, trying to keep her thoughts and wandering eyes off Gohan's cute butt.

Gohan entered the room, making no effort at all to keep quiet, he shoved toys to the side of the room, making a pathway to his bed.

"Aren't you going to be quiet? You could wake your brother" Videl said

"Nah, he'll sleep through anything," Gohan said and he walked over to his bed and proceeded to move it away from his brother's bed.

"It's so he doesn't bash you in the middle of the night" Gohan explained when Videl looked at him strangely.

"Oh" she whispered, despite what Gohan'd said earlier.

"There you go" Gohan said, indicating to the bed, which was now a fair distance away from Goten's bed.

Videl sat on the bed, and watched Gohan as he went over to his brother's bed and tucked the small boy in tighter before he left the room.

"Goodnight" he called from the hallway.

Videl crawled between the sheets, thinking about the day and how weird it's been so far.

'My life is so strange' she thought as she drifted off to sleep.

Gohan made his way out to the lounge where he'd made a temporary bed on the couch.

He lay down looking up at the roof and pulled the blanket over him, but unfortunately it wasn't long enough and his feet stuck out the end.

He looked down at his feet sticking out at the end and sighed.

'Oh well, I guess I'll have to have cold feet' he thought as he stared at the roof, wondering how he was going to teach Videl how to use her ki and fly and all that. She'd probably want to find out more about him too. He sighed again, he could tell that the next few days would probably bring up a few sensitive topics.

The next morning, Videl was woken by an energetic young boy bouncing on the end of her bed.

'Where am I? Who's that?' she thought, confusion breaking through the last misty remains of sleep.

Suddenly, memories came flooding back to her, she was at Gohan's house and the boy jumping on the bed was Gohan's kid brother, Goten.

She was just about to sit up and show the kid that she was not Gohan, when the person in question entered the doorway of the room.

"Goten, get off there" his stern voice ordered

"Gohan?" Goten said, thoroughly confused "But how can you be there and in bed?" 

Gohan rolled his eyes, seriously, his brother could be so stupid sometimes.

"No Goten, that's not me, it's Videl" Gohan said

"Oh" Goten said and quickly jumped off the bed, looking quite woebegone.

Gohan laughed "It's okay, Goten, you didn't know" he reached down and hugged his brother "I'm sure she's awake now anyway" he said when he saw Videl turn over and watch the two brothers.

"Morning" Gohan said to Videl then led his brother out of the room so Videl could get changed in private.

"Goten, why don't you see if you can help mom with the breakfast?" Gohan suggested, to get the young boy out of the way, Goten took the suggestion and ran off to the kitchen eagerly to help his mother, his favourite thing after eating, training and playing.

Gohan waited outside his room for Videl to finish getting ready.

He didn't need to worry about getting changed, as he had gotten up earlier for an early-morning training session and was wearing his light blue gi, which did nothing to hide his perfect muscles.

He leaned against the wall, just how long did females take to get ready anyway, he questioned himself, but not knowing the answer, he decided to just wait.

A few seconds later, Videl emerged from the bedroom, wearing a similar outfit to what she was yesterday, with the exception that she was wearing baggy jeans with her oversized t-shirt, instead of shorts.

"Ready for breakfast?" Gohan questioned

"Yep, sure am" Videl said

The two teens made their way to the kitchen for breakfast, the most important meal of the day, although, all meals were important to Saiyans, they needed energy for what would be a tiring day. Physically for Videl and mentally for Gohan.

As usual, Goten was already seated at the table, knife and fork in hands, poised above his plate of food, waiting for the rest of the people to get to the table, as he had always been raised with polite manners, such as not eating until everyone is at the table.

Gohan and Videl took their seats and Chichi placed the last plate or bacon on the table and took her seat too, ready for the latest session of feeding time at the Son household…or should I say zoo?

As soon as everyone was ready, all chaos broke loose, two demi-Saiyans eating like there was no tomorrow, chewing and swallowing really quickly, making food fly everywhere.

Well, we can't say that Saiyans are slow eaters, and the meal was finished within about 5 minutes and soon there were 2 contented demi-Saiyans and one contented human teen.

"Mom, we're going out to train now," Gohan said, and he and Videl left the table and walked outside.

Once outside, Videl took the chance to take in the beautiful natural sights that she had neglected to see the day before.

"So where exactly are we going?" she asked

"To my normal training place" Gohan said "Shall we fly, it'll take too long if we walk"

Videl nodded and Gohan picked her up and they flew to Gohan's normal training place, which they'd passed on the way to the house.

Within minutes, they were there and Gohan landed in the middle of the clearing and let go of Videl, who immediately turned around, taking in her surroundings.

"This place is so cool" she commented, after a short while.

Gohan's hand found it's way up to his neck in the typical Son gesture and he said, "Uhhh, thanks, I think" 

Videl laughed at the rather funny-looking demi-Saiyan and left the floor open for him to start the lesson.

"I suppose teaching can't be that hard," Gohan said, as his thoughts drifted to his days when he was younger, under Piccolo's teaching. Piccolo didn't do much to teach him, he basically dropped him on his own in the wilderness, but then, he was a Saiyan, and Saiyans were naturally programmed to survive on their own like that, he couldn't exactly drop Videl in the middle of nowhere and tell her to survive for a year on her own.

His hand returned to the back of his head in nervousness as he tried to think of a good way to teach about ki and flying. Those kind of things weren't taught, as such, they were just usually picked up along the way, and a few of the harder techniques were taught, but simple energy beams and all were different.

Gohan let out a long breath as he sat cross-legged on the ground and motioned for Videl to follow suit.

Once she sat down, he started his explanation, or rather, trying to explain, but not too successfully.

"Well, ki is the energy every living thing has in their body and...you can use it for things such as blasts and flying...it's really quite simple to learn...oh, I give up...just watch"

At that, Gohan made another small energy ball in his hands, which again, Videl inspected.

"To make this energy ball, you need to gather up all the energy you feel in your body and push it out into your hands" Gohan explained, slightly better than what he was before.

Videl nodded and cupped her hands together, and tried to copy Gohan's energy ball. It took a while, but soon, she had a small energy ball in her hands too. She looked up with a triumphant grin on her face.

"I did it, Gohan, I did it" she said, in half disbelief.

"That's great," Gohan said, and the next couple of hours were spent on perfecting her ki ball, and she even formed a small energy blast, which made a small hole in a nearby rock.

"Wow! That is so cool! I made a hole in the rock with my energy!" Videl exclaimed, running towards the boulder and inspecting her small hole. Gohan couldn't help smile at her enthusiasm, she looked exactly like what Goten did when he made his first energy blast almost a year ago exactly. He was only three, but quite powerful for his age, so Gohan'd decided to start training him.

"I think it's about time for lunch," Gohan said, going only on the fact that his stomach was now growling loudly.

"I'd say so," Videl said, as she came back over to where Gohan was "All this ki blasting makes you hungry"

Gohan pulled a capsule out of the pocket of his gi, pressed the button on the top and threw it onto the ground and it transformed into a large pile of food.

Without a word, Gohan sat down and started digging into the food.

Trying not to stare too much, Videl sat down and started eating, cause she knew that she wouldn't get any if she just sat back and watched.

Within a few minutes, the lunch was finished and both teens were satisfied.

They sat with their backs against a rock, relaxing for a while before they started the next step in Videl's lesson, flying.

Questions flew around in Videl's head, she really wanted to ask Gohan some more questions, but she didn't know how he'd react. She didn't really want to dig too deep into his life if he didn't want her to. Her attitude to this had certainly changed. She didn't quite know why, but she thought it had something to do with the vulnerability she sometimes had glimpsed through Gohan's steely exterior.

Gohan sat, staring at the clouds, in silence, he could tell that Videl wanted to ask him something, but he wasn't sure whether he'd have the right answers for her.

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly "Just ask," he said, as he turned his head to look at her, his face impassive.

Videl turned her head to stare at Gohan "Ask what?"

"Ask me a question, I can tell you want to" Gohan said "I'll try and answer it for you"

Videl hesitated for a second, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to pull up memories for Gohan, she could sense that it was something big that he was hiding.

"Don't worry," she said, even though she really did want to know "You don't have to tell me until you want to, I don't mind waiting"

Gohan looked at Videl strangely, here was the girl who he thought wanted to find out everything about him, and now she was saying she didn't mind waiting.

With a sigh, he stood up "I think it's time you learnt how to fly" he said and walked out into the middle of the clearing again and waited.

Videl stared at Gohan walking away, but quickly shook herself out of her thoughts and followed him out to the clearing so they could get on with her lesson.

~~~

**Author's Notes: Soz I haven't been updating much, I just really couldn't be bothered and I was reading fics instead of writing them. *slaps the back of my hand* I'm sorri guys, but I'll update quicker if you leave me lotsa reviews…hint hint…**


	8. Flying Lessons

~~~

Hero? Doubt it

Chapter 7 – Flying Lessons

Written By RJ

~~~

Disclaimer: don't own it.

Thanks guys for the reviews. Sorry it took so long to update, I have finished this story, but it's the actual getting motivated to put my files onto a floppy disk, transferring them to my parents' computer and uploading them is a whole other thing…=D…well anywayz, enjoy.

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"Now, to fly, you gather your ki energy and push it out under you, it's quite simple really" Gohan said

Videl raised her eyebrow when Gohan said 'simple' but she knew she had to do it, not just for herself, but for some strange reason, she wanted to make him proud of her.

Videl took a deep breath and closed her eyes and concentrated on gathering her energy.

"Relax your muscles" Gohan coached her softly

Videl did so, instantly, she felt the change and she felt really light and floaty.

"Now push the energy out from your feet" Gohan said softly

Videl clenched her fists by her sides, but remembered Gohan's instruction about relaxing and unclenched them, letting them dangle uselessly by her sides.

She gathered up her energy and let it slowly move through her body until she felt it moving down her legs, it was a really strange feeling, but Videl didn't let that distract her, she moved the energy down more until it got to her feet and with a final push, she pushed a little of it out below her.

Suddenly, she was off the ground, Videl snapped her eyes open to see how much she had risen into the air, granted, it was only a few centimetres, but to Videl, that in itself was a great achievement, seeing as she'd only been learning about this for a day.

Not letting the feeling of happiness distract her, she concentrated on pushing more of her energy out so she'd rise higher.

She rose further and further into the air until she was a couple of metres in the air.

Suddenly, she felt really tired and wanted to come down. She sweatdropped. She didn't know how to get down.

"Uhhh, Gohan...how do I get down?" she asked

Gohan laughed a little "You just drop the amount of energy you are pushing out, but don't cut it all at once, you might find yourself in a rather uncomfortable position on the ground"

Videl nodded and closed her eyes once more, concentrating on cutting the energy she was putting out slowly.

After what seemed like ages, she finally reached the ground and she flopped over and lay down on the ground, arms and legs splayed out at rather awkward angles, breathing heavily, but she had a huge smile all over her face.

"Well done" Gohan congratulated her "It usually takes ages to learn this kind of stuff, you have really good control of your powers, for a human"

Videl smiled at the compliment and blushed slightly "Thanks, Gohan" she said, "I can't wait until I can fly like you do"

"That will take a lot of practise" Gohan said "But you can come here anytime and practise, no one will see you"

"That's cool," Videl said, then added, "Is it normal to get really tired when you're flying?"

"Yeah, when you're learning, and probably cause you've only just learnt how to control your ki, and all in one day even, but you'll probably sleep well tonight, that's for sure" Gohan said, "I remember one day when I was learning, I fell asleep in mid-air and let's just say, I had a rather rude awakening"

Videl giggled "I can imagine"

Silence fell over the area for a second, but was broken by Goten as he flew in on Nimbus, even though he could fly under his own power, he enjoyed flying with his golden, fluffy friend.

"Gooohhannn!!!" Goten called from quite far away.

Gohan and Videl both looked towards the chibi sitting on the little cloud.

"Gohan! Mum said I have to come and play with you" Goten chirped, Chichi must have gotten sick of him hanging around and sent him out to find his big brother.

"Okay then, Goten" Gohan said as his cute little brother jumped off Nimbus and landed on the ground beside the two teens.

"Gooohannn" Goten said in a whiny sort of voice "When are we gonna do our proper training?"

"Later, Goten, I'm sure Videl wouldn't wanna watch us spar" Gohan said, crouching down so he was the same height as his little brother.

"But I wanna spar and Trunks can't come over, he said he was grounded" Goten said sadly.

"Grounded? What did he do this time?" Gohan asked, amused, the pranks that Trunks pulled were usually aimed at Vegeta, but they were always really funny, not that he'd ever let the Saiyan Prince know that.

"He made everything in the house taller so Vegeta thought that he was shrinking, and he even made Bulma to wear her tall boots too" Goten said "And he was really mad too"

Gohan tried not to laugh when he heard that, the Saiyan Prince was always very self-conscious about his height and something like this must have really pushed him over the edge.

"But that's nothing compared to what we did to him last time" Goten said proudly "Last time, Bulma was gonna make us all go shopping with her and she needed to get Trunks some new clothes and she was annoyed with Vegeta and she made him come too, and me and Trunks put a sign on his back which said 'Point and laugh', it was really funny coz people actually did point and laugh, and Vegeta was getting really annoyed cuz he couldn't figure out what they were doing for ages, then finally Bulma told him about the sign"

Gohan laughed, Vegeta could be quite oblivious to things sometimes.

Silence fell over the three for a second and suddenly, Gohan noticed the rapidly clouding over sky.

"Uh, guys, I think we're in for a bad storm" he said as he turned his gaze back to Videl and his brother.

Goten and Videl looked up at the sky and right on cue, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, lightening up the rapidly darkening sky.

A loud roll of thunder followed soon after and before they knew it, rain was pouring down like nothing before.

"Dammit" Gohan muttered under his breath and motioned for his brother and Videl to follow him, he knew of a cave near here and now would be a good time to make use of it.

"Gohan? Where are we going" Videl called out to him over the noise of the falling rain.

"Don't worry, we'll get there in a second" Gohan shouted back and they ran into a small patch of trees and to a cliff wall on the other side.

Gohan ran along the cliff face for a few paces and suddenly stopped.

"Up there!" he shouted over the rain and pointed to an opening higher on the cliff face.

Goten immediately took flight and entered the cave and Gohan grabbed Videl and quickly followed him into the dark depths of the cave.

Videl restrained herself from making a noise as Gohan unexpectedly grabbed her and flew up towards the cave.

She held on tight to his slippery, wet clothes as he rose through the air.

Suddenly, she felt him stop moving and he let go of her. She waited for a second to regain her balance before she pulled away from Gohan.

"Goten" Gohan said, getting his brother's attention "There's some wood back in the cave a bit, can you get it please"

Goten nodded and ran off to complete the task, coming back a few seconds later with a large pile of wood, which looked too big for the chibi to manage, but Goten seemed to manage just fine. He quickly dropped the wood in a pile in the middle of the cave and set it alight with a small bit of ki.

Soon the fire was burning nicely and Gohan, Goten and Videl were sitting quite contentedly around the fire. The rain outside was showing no signs of letting up, but despite all of that, Videl was quite surprised to find that she was enjoying it.

The crackling fire danced in front of her vision, capturing her attention while she disappeared into her thoughts.

Gohan tried staring at the fire, but somehow, his gaze kept on turning to Videl. How was it that just last week, he could have sworn that she hated him, but now, she was sitting in a cave with him and he had told her about some of his past, and now he was teaching her how to fly. Things just don't get much stranger, but somehow it seemed to fit just right.

"Gohan" Goten said, shaking Gohan out of his thoughts "I'm hungry"

"I'm sorry, squirt, but I've got no food here" Gohan said "You'll either have to go back home through the storm or get some berries or something from the forest"

Goten thought for a while as he weighed up the options.

"I'm gonna go home" he said bravely "It's really boring here"

He walked over to the edge of the cave, looking outside for a second before he took off.

"Be careful, Goten" Gohan yelled after his quickly retreating form.

Silence fell over the cave again.

"Well, do you wanna go back too?" Gohan asked

"I don't know, maybe we should just stay here for a while" Videl said, "I don't really feel like facing a storm like this right now"

Gohan moved so he was leaning against the wall and made himself as comfortable as he could against the hard rock.

"I guess we'll be here for a while then," he said

Videl sat in silence for a while, they hadn't spoken for a while, there seemed to be nothing to say, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, they were just enjoying each other's company.

She moved around, trying to find a comfortable spot against the hard wall. She finally found a reasonably comfortable one and she wriggled around a little, making herself comfortable.

"Hey, Gohan" Videl said

"Mm-hm"

"What's it like being a Saiyan?" she asked

Gohan sat up straighter, thinking of how to answer the question.

"I don't know really, I'm just used to it, I never really thought about it," Gohan said, "But it's far different from being a human. For one thing, Saiyans naturally have a lot of pride, you never wanna mess with one when it's about something they value or anything, although, it's not so strong in half-Saiyans. You only have to look at Vegeta for an example of Saiyan pride. There's also the urge to fight, Saiyans love fighting, whenever a Saiyan is faced with a situation where there could even possibly be fighting, they try and encourage the fight"

Videl watched, taking in his every word, Saiyans sounded so different to humans.

"It sounds cool," she said

"It's not all good," Gohan said quietly and he turned his attention back to the fire.

Videl shut up, he obviously didn't want to share something and she wasn't gonna push him for answers, not anymore. She remembered the look he got in his eyes when she asked him about his father, she guessed it was something to do with his father, but if he wanted to share, he would in his own time.

Videl looked outside and was surprised to see that the rain had stopped.

"Hey, Gohan, the rain's stopped, we can go now" she said, pointing outside.

Gohan looked up at her and smiled, the traces of emotion from his face before were gone and he looked normal again.

"Come on then" he said, standing up.

He walked to the edge of the cave, picked Videl up and took off into the air.

Goten was sitting at the table, eating his food quickly, as usual. He'd come home and made a bee-line for the refrigerator, and had made himself a rather large sandwich, and at that moment, was trying to open his mouth far enough so he could fit the whole sandwich into his mouth.

Just as the sandwich was about to go in, Gohan and Videl walked through the door, sopping wet. Goten dropped his sandwich and rushed over to his brother and gave him a big hug, ending up sopping wet again too.

In the midst of Gohan's attempt to pry the hyper-active chibi off him, Chichi walked into the room per mother's instinct.

"Gohan" she said, her voice ringing around the room, getting everyone's attention "Go and get changed now before you catch a cold" conveniently ignoring the fact that Gohan was half Saiyan and Saiyans are immune to the common cold and the like.

Gohan and Videl obeyed and quickly walked towards Gohan's room.

Gohan grabbed his clothes and made his way to the bathroom, leaving his bedroom free for Videl to get changed in.

The two teenagers got changed quickly and then met again in the kitchen where they were greeted with a mountain of food on the table.

"Yeah, snack time" Gohan said, then sat down in his seat and started digging in to the mountain.

"Snack?" Videl said as quickly sat down and took her share of the food before Gohan and Goten could eat it all.

Time passed quickly and soon it was early on Monday morning.

Gohan was lying on the couch, his feet sticking out the end of his short blanket, staring at the roof, deep in thought, but not thinking about anything in particular. (Does that make any sense at all?)

He felt very out of kilter, as he hadn't done any proper training for the last 3 days.

Slowly, he pulled himself into a sitting position on the couch and stared out the window opposite.

Outside, he could see that it was still dark, but there were some beams of light piercing the dawn sky.

He heard a small shuffling noise behind him. It could only be one person.

"Morning, Videl" he said softly, not adverting his attention from the window.

Videl moved forward until she reached the back of the couch.

"Mind if I sit down?" she asked

Gohan didn't answer, but instead, moved over a bit so she could sit down next to him.

The two sat there in silence for a while, just silently enjoying each other's company.

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**Author's Notes: **Well, I hope u enjoyed it. The story is almost finished, only two more chapters, plus an epilogue if I can be bothered to write it…review and I promise I'll update quicker.


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